Southwest Baptist University’s annual Homecoming event will be Friday, October 10th, and Saturday, October 11th; the theme this year is “Forward in Faith.” This year’s festivities will incorporate a new tradition with the Bearcat Hall of Fame inductees and will feature the largest SBU Homecoming parade in years, including over 10 marching bands from across the Ozarks (more than triple the number from 2024).
Events on Friday, October 10th, begin with the 50-Year Club Luncheon at 11:30 am (tickets required) for Alumni who graduated in 1975 and earlier, followed by the Class of ’75 reunion. Men’s soccer will play at 1:30 pm with the women’s soccer match following at 3:30 pm. At 4 pm, Student Bed Races will take place on Ingman Avenue.
Friday evening, the classes of ’55, ’65, ’75, ’85, ’95, ’05, and ’15 are invited to join us in the Student Union at 4:30 pm for a ‘Reunion Classes Social’, which will include taking official class photos. Following this event, all alumni are invited to The Marketplace (formerly Meller’s Dining Commons) for our Alumni Banquet at 5:30 pm (tickets required), where this year’s Alumni Association Award recipients will be honored. The 3rd Annual Southwest Baptist Celebration will be at Meyer Recital Hall at 7 pm, celebrating each reunion class with a retrospective video. For the first time ever, this event will also honor the newest Bearcats Hall of Fame inductees. All are welcome to attend this free event!
Events on Saturday, October 11th, will start with an Alumni Breakfast at 8:30 am right before the Homecoming Parade. This year’s parade is slated to be much larger than past years, as SBU hosts more than 10 high school marching bands in this year's Homecoming Parade. Stephen Mathews, Director of Instrumental Studies at SBU, encourages the community to “please come out to support these bands and their directors as they perform not only for our community but also compete before a panel of highly-experienced music educators as judges.”
The parade will begin at 10 am and will follow the same route as prior years. Floats will start on Locust Street near First Baptist Church, move south on Main Avenue, go west on Maupin Street, then south on Pike Avenue, before ending at Plaster Stadium.
(Community businesses, churches, and organizations that wish to be in the Parade can still apply at advance.SBUniv.edu/parade preferably by October 3rd.)
Following the parade, the Bearcat Bash picnic buffet will run from 11 am to 1 pm on the Forum (open to the public, tickets required) and will feature activities for kids of all ages. The SBU Bearcats football team will face off against McKendree University at Plaster Stadium at 1:00pm (tickets required). The crowning of the Homecoming King and Queen will also take place at halftime.
To see a full list of SBU Homecoming events and to register online, go to advance.SBUniv.edu/homecoming before October 1st. We hope to see you there!